India’s first dedicated Covid-19 hospital by Reliance

Reliance Industries said it will pay contract and temporary workers wages even in case of no work due to coronavirus outbreak. The company set up India’s first dedicated Covid-19 hospital in Mumbai, ramped up face-mask production capacity and commenced free meals and fuel to deal with the crisis.

In a raft of
measures to deal with the pandemic, Reliance said it initiated a multi-pronged
prevention, mitigation and ongoing support strategy “which can be ramped up
further to scale as required.” HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in collaboration
with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) set up a dedicated 100-bedded
centre at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai for patients who test positive for
Covid-19.

“This
first-of-its-kind- centre is fully funded by Reliance Foundation and includes a
negative pressure room that helps in preventing cross-contamination and helps
control infection. All beds are equipped with the required infrastructure,
biomedical equipment such as ventilators, pacemakers, dialysis machine and
patient monitoring devices.

The Reliance foundation also offered to set up special
medical facilities to quarantine travellers from notified countries and
suspected cases identified through contact tracing. Reliance has built a fully-equipped isolation
facility in Lodhivali, Maharashtra and handed it over to the district
authorities even as Reliance Life Sciences is importing additional test kits
and consumables for effective testing.

“Our doctors and researchers are also working
overtime to find a cure for this deadly virus,” the company said, adding that,
it is raising production capacities to produce 100,000 face-masks per day and a
large number of personal protective equipment such as suits and garments, for
the health-workers to equip them further to fight the coronavirus challenge.

Further it will also provide free fuel for all emergency
service vehicles used to transport Covid-19 patients and quarantined people.
The free meals are across various cities. It is to those whose livelihood has
been impacted by the current crisis.

The firm said it “will continue to pay contract and
temporary workers, even if work has halted due to this crisis.” For employees
earning below Rs 30,000 per month, salaries will be paid twice a month to
protect their cashflow. Reliance has moved most of its employees to its
Work-From-Home platform except for those who are manning critical roles in
maintaining the Jio (telecom) network for nearly 40 crore customers and for
providing an uninterrupted supply of fuel, grocery and other essential items of
daily consumption.

On its retail business, the company said: “all the 736
grocery stores of Reliance Retail will ensure sufficient supply of essentials.
“Grocery stores will be open longer – from 7 am to 11 pm – wherever
possible,” it said.

Lastly Jio will provide double-data across its 4G data
add-on vouchers. It will also bundle non-voice calling minutes in these
vouchers at no additional cost, to meet the increased need of these services.